GONZALES, Texas — In the land of thick steaks, the perfect side dish grows next door to the beef.
Kitchen Pride Farms is one of two mushroom farms in Texas growing about 68,000 kilograms of button and portabello mushrooms each week. Considered a fairly small operation, the 13-year-old, family-run farm is expanding.
“We started with 8,000 sq. feet. Now we’re at 20,000 feet and we’re talking about a third expansion,” said Phil McLain, who owns the place with his father and brother.
The mushroom growing cycle begins with making compost from chic-ken manure and wheat straw.
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However, drought in southern Texas has reduced the straw supply so the McLains buy from the northern part of the state, as well as Oklahoma. Straw costs $60 (US) per ton, plus freight.
There are several large poultry operations nearby supplying chicken litter.
It takes about 21 days to process the manure into a black, moist compost suitable for mushroom growth. The compost is sterilized before the mushroom spawn is added.
Once planted, mushroom spawn takes 13 days to form mycelium, a white, fibrous material.
Five centimetres of peat moss containing lime are applied to the surface and the mycelium knits the fibres together as it grows through, forming tiny knobs.
These grow into mushrooms in long, narrow shelf beds stacked six high in darkened rooms.
The temperature is adjusted to slow or accelerate growth. If growth is too rapid, the temperature is turned down from 18 to 15 C.
“Produce does not always grow the way you want it to,” said production manager Steve Ballard.
Each crop is picked by hand three times over three weeks. Each picking takes about three days.
Standing on scaffolds, pickers gather about 15 one-gallon baskets per hour. They sort by size as they pick and may work for 12 hours if growth is heavy. They are paid by the amount they pick.
Picking is done in a warm, semi-lit atmosphere. The entire facility smells like a decomposing forest floor.
The mushrooms go into cold storage and are often shipped out the same day to local grocers and restaurants.
Mushrooms that do not sell right away go to a canner in Pennsylvania. It pays 15 cents a kg, which covers the cost of growing and freight.
After the crop is finished, the rooms are heated to 40 C to sterilize the growing medium. The medium is sold to nurseries where it is mixed with sand and other compounds for sale to home gardeners.
